1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a chemical reaction cartridge, a method for producing a chemical reaction cartridge and a mechanism for driving a chemical reaction cartridge. Particularly it relates to improvement in liquid supply structure concerned with synthesis, dissolution, detection, separation, etc. of a solution.
2. Description of the Related Art
Test tubes, beakers, pipettes, etc. are heretofore generally used for synthesis, dissolution, detection, separation, etc. of a solution. For example, substance A and substance B are taken in test tubes, beakers, or the like, in advance. The substances A and B are injected into other vessels such as test tubes or beakers and mixed and stirred to prepare substance C. The substance C synthesized thus is observed, for example, in terms of light emission, exotherm, coloration, colorimetry, etc.
Or the mixture substance may be filtrated or centrifugally separated to extract a target substance.
Glass instruments such as test tubes or beakers are also used for dissolution such as dissolution in an organic solvent. In the case of detection, a test substance A and a reagent are likewise put in a vessel and a result of reaction is observed.
On the other hand, a bag called “biochip” made of a flexible material and shaped like a flat bag is used in a bio-analyzer or the like (e.g. see JP-A-2002-365299).
JP-A-2002-365299 is referred to as a related art.
FIGS. 27A and 27B are configuration views of a biochip described in JP-A-2002-365299. FIG. 27A is a sectional view of the biochip. FIG. 27B is a plan view of the biochip. A flat blood collecting bag 41 having peripherals sealed hermetically has a center portion shaped like a fish-like bag. An opening portion of the fish-like bag is blocked with a rubber stopper 42.
In the blood collecting bag 41, a picking portion 43, a pre-treatment portion 44, a connection portion 45 and a waste storing portion 47 are formed successively when viewed inward from the stopper 42. To collect blood, the stopper 42 is inserted into an injector (not shown). In the inside of the injector, an injection needle protrudes out so as to pierce the stopper 42.
To collect blood, a subject is pierced by a pointed end of the needle protruding out of the injector and a hook 431 of the blood collecting bag 41 is stretched outward so that blood is collected in the picking portion 43. After blood is collected, the injector is removed from the blood collecting bag. Then, as shown in FIG. 28, the blood collecting bag 41 is clamped between rotary rollers 61 and 62 and moved from the picking portion 43 to the pre-treatment portion 44 so as to be squashed while pressed. The collected blood is transported into the pre-treatment portion 44.
When a pouch portion 48 begins to be squashed with the advance of the positions of the rollers 61 and 62, a solution in the pouch portion 48 breaks a valve 49 and flows into the pre-treatment portion 44. Then, a solution in a pouch portion 50 flows into the pre-treatment portion 44 in the same manner as described above. When a predetermined treatment in the pre-treatment portion is completed, the rollers are rotated so that the treated blood is transported into the connection portion 45.
A DNA chip 46 is disposed in the connection portion 45 for performing hybridization. Superfluous blood or solution pushed out from the pre-treatment portion 44 is reserved in the waste storing portion 47. The state of the DNA chip after hybridization is observed by a reader disposed in the outside.
In the background-art method using beakers, pipettes, etc., the operation is however troublesome and there is a problem in large personal error and much labor.
Moreover, in the case of a blood collecting bag, there is problem that a solution cannot be moved easily because the blood collecting bag is not elastic.
To solve this problem, there is an attempt to provide a vessel as a cartridge. Like the biochip, solutions are transported into chambers (hereinafter referred to as “wells”) provided in the cartridge and connected to one another for performing a treatment such as mixing and chemical reaction. When the vessel is provided as a cartridge, there is however the following problems.
(1) When a solution is transported into a next well, the solution is mixed with air because air is contained in the next well in advance. Moreover, the solution is moved back by the back pressure of air.
(2) At the time of solution transport, the solution flows into not only the next well but also a well or flow path subsequent to the next well.
(3) At the time of heating and vibrating the solution, the solution flows out to other wells.
(4) When a sample is injected initially, air is mixed with the sample. Moreover, since the sample is injected manually, quantitativeness is poor (i.e. a predetermined amount of the sample cannot be used as an initial quantity for reaction).
(5) Although it is easy to obtain a mixture (A+B) of solutions A and B simply, for example, it is impossible to achieve a structure (cross structure) for extraction and purification of DNA from a sample by using silica, magnetic particles or the like.